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You have been invited to represent your profession as a member of the Student / Recent Graduate Advisory Group. Before you decide, it is important for you to understand why the project is conducted and what it will involve. Please take time to read the following information carefully and discuss it with others if you wish. Please feel free to ask us if there is anything that is not clear or if you would like more information. You may take your time to decide if you wish to take part, however, as we are only looking for one (1) student / recent graduate to represent each profession – spaces may be taken up on a first-come-first-served basis. Thank you for reading this.

Why have I been invited to participate in the Student / Recent Graduate Advisory Group?

You have been invited to participate because you are of Black and Minoritized Ethnic background, AND

Currently enrolled OR a recent graduate of a pre-registration programme from one of the 15 allied health professions: Art Therapists, Drama Therapists, Music Therapists, Chiropodists / Podiatrists, Dietitians, Occupational therapists, Operating Department Practitioners, Orthoptists, Osteopaths, Paramedics, Physiotherapists, Prosthetists and Orthotists, Diagnostic Radiographers, Therapeutic Radiographers, and Speech and Language Therapists.

What does participating in the Student / Recent Graduate Advisory Group entail?

You will have the opportunity to engage with this project in an advisory capacity.

You will be invited to:

• Participate in the Student / Recent Graduate Advisory Group Whatsapp Chat. This is a student-only version of the Community Loop facilitated by student project assistants working under the guidance of qualified AHP researchers. #BMEstreetAHPs Terms of Engagement apply. By providing us with your contact details to join the group, you agree to these terms.
• Attend meetings to advise on project matters.
• Participate as a critical friend to the project, evaluate and advise on strategies to mitigate associated risks.
• Provide suggestions on ways to enhance quality, input on better ways to facilitate various project mechanisms e.g., community-looping, data collection processes.
• Support with project promotion e.g., circulating links to your personal networks including via social media, contributing photographs / videos.
• As well as engage in other ways to provide support, guidance and oversight of the process as needed.

Do I have to take part?

Participation is entirely voluntary; it is up to you to decide whether to take part. If you do decide to take part, you will be asked to sign a digital version of this information sheet by inputting your institutional email address and pressing the submit button. If you decide to take part, you are free to withdraw at any time and without having to give a reason.

However, if you have previously contributed ideas or items to the project that have already been subject to collective further development, it would not be possible to request for those specific contributions to be withdrawn as it would erase the collective labour from co-contributors.

Likewise, if you have contributed materials that have already been released out into the public domain of social media e.g., tweets, photographs of yourself or photographs you have taken, it would not be possible to request for their withdrawal because of the difficulties with retrieval due to the fleeting nature of the medium.

The right to decline or withdraw from the project will in no way adversely affect you. If you discontinue participation, you will not lose access to any benefits or incentives to which you were otherwise entitled.

What are the possible disadvantages and risks of taking part?

There can be various challenges associated with working with a large group of people, particularly as our Student / Recent Graduate Advisory Group consists of people representing the 15 allied health professions.

As such, there may be limitations and challenges introduced by a variety of reasons e.g., differences in alignment, competing priorities, resource constraints. While we will venture to do as much as possible within our capacity to prevent communication breakdowns in line with our Terms of Engagement, should you feel disadvantaged or put at risk in any way, please feel empowered to raise these issues to us (see below, “What if something goes wrong?”).

If it is not possible for these issues to be resolved to your satisfaction, you may withdraw participation at any point. Your decision to decline or withdraw from the project will in no way adversely affect you. If you discontinue participation, you will not lose access to any benefits or incentives to which you were otherwise entitled.

What are the possible benefits of taking part?

You will be rewarded for your labour with a £25 Amazon voucher for each Student / Recent Graduate Advisory Group meeting you attend. You may be invited to attend other events, however there might not necessarily be compensation involved unless otherwise specified.

What if something goes wrong?

If anything goes wrong, please feel empowered to contact any of the named project working team. You can use the website contact form, email us directly as a collective at BMEstreetAHPs [at] gmail.com, DM us via Twitter @BMEstreetAHPs or contact us individually as most of us have links to contact details on the ‘Who’s Involved?’ page.

If you are not happy with the project working team, then complaints can be directed to Tomas Ince, Health Education England AHP Workforce Fellow for London – tomas.ince [at] hee.nhs.uk

If you are harmed by taking part in this project, there are no special compensation arrangements. If you are harmed due to someone’s negligence, then you may have grounds for legal action, but you may have to pay for it.

We would also like to remind you that if you are currently enrolled in a pre-registration AHP programme, Student Wellbeing Services offered by your respective education providers are available to support you with any aspect of your studies.

Will my taking part in this project be kept confidential?

As a member of the Student / Recent Graduate Advisory Group, your name and the profession you represent will be publicised on the project website. You may use this as evidence of your involvement for CPD records and you may include the link on your CV.

You may also be invited to contribute photographs or video recordings for project promotional purposes.

Will I be recorded, and how will the recording be used?

We do not plan to have audio-visual recordings of Student / Recent Graduate Advisory Group meetings. However, we will be taking notes during the meetings to facilitate further action plans.